Capturing data, easily.
Author: Matthew Bibby | Filed under: Business, Uncategorized, eLearningOne the easiest ways to create an online form is by using the Google Docs ‘form’ feature.
Forms allow you to obtain and organize relevant data easily.
They can improve productivity and data integrity as well as providing a great way of getting feedback from trainees and students.
Setting up a form is easy and I suggest that you create one while reading this post (all the links will open in new tabs/windows in your browser).
- Go to the Google Docs site and login/register
- Then create a new form as shown below
- You can then enter the title of the form and any instructions you wish
- Then start on your first question
- You will notice that a ‘Name’ field is added by default
- Add your question title and choose the question type
- For this example I will use a Scale question (think Likert)
- Then fill in the fields and your first question is done!
- There is big Add Question button at the top of the page that you can use to add more questions
- If you want to change the order of the questions simply drag and drop!
- You can preview, edit or delete individual questions
- Once you have finished writing the questions, hit the link to the spreadsheet at the bottom of the page
- This is the link to your form, you can also email the form or embed it in your own webpage
- I strongly suggest editing the confirmation message (i.e. the page that appears after a form has been submitted) to personalize the appearance of your form
- Once a form is complete all the responses are added into a Google Spreadsheet, which can then be exported to a variety of formats (.csv, .xls, .pdf etc)
A couple of other things to note:
- People completing the form do not need to have a Google account or to register for one to complete the form that you create
- Make sure that you understand the level of security of these forms before using them to collect confidential information
These forms can be used to:
- Get feedback from trainees, students etc.
- As a way of brainstorming ideas (especially before a meeting as it gets everyone thinking about what will be discussed)
- To collect information, track expenses, get course feedback etc
Please leave a comment letting others know how you are going to use this knowledge. In what ways can you use forms to improve you productivity?
Oh yeah, the form that was created while this post was being prepared is located here and if you would like to save a copy of these steps please download this PDF file.
Finally, thanks @beckcollect for letting me know this functionality existed 
October 13th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Found Matthews blog today talking on Google Documents and using ‘forms’. When I find a new application or tool, I have to try it in order to get the idea of how it works. As in intern teaching computer applications, I have a cooperating teacher observing me as I teach. I decided to set up a website where he could fill out the form online, submit the form and then I receive the information he records as in the forms’ spreadsheet. I originally set it up on google pages, but did not like how it looked (you know women, it is all about presentation). Then I tried to embed it using the google sites application, but I was not able to embed it. I am sure it can be done, it is just not as simple as cut and paste. After spending WAY TOOOOO much time playing around with it, I went back to google pages and changed the size of the form screen. It still is not perfect, but it sure beats me wasting time figuring it out.
Thanks for all the help Matthew.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Hi, Matthew. I followed the link you left at Work Literacy – Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals to your blog.
Thanks for this tip on forms in Google Docs. I’ve been using Google Docs for spreadsheets, but I wasn’t aware of the forms feature. Thanks!
October 14th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Thanks for the comment munromobile, let us know how using forms in this way works out!
It would be interesting to hear the thoughts of your cooperating teacher also on the benefits of reflecting on the session in this way.
Sorry you found embedding in google site/pages so tricky, I haven’t tried that myself. I did find this info from the Official Google Docs Blog:
Not sure if that is what you tried, but I thought it might help.
I have heard that it is pretty easy to embed a form in Ning (great idea for course feedback) and look forward to trying this when the need arises.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Thanks for the feedback David.
I would be interested in hearing about how you use this knowledge in your work and how this improves your productivity.
Isn’t the Work Literacy course wonderful!
October 14th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Matthew, I agree. The Work Literacy Ning is fantastic! I knew it would be good, but it has far surpassed my expectations. I think that’s because there are so many learners involved, and the wealth of experience is invaluable.
October 14th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Hi Matthew – this was useful – i was not aware of this feature on googledocs. thanks!
Have you tried other form tools such as SurveyMonkey
October 14th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Found your link on the WL Ning. The Google Docs Form Feature is a tremendous tool! However, when I have used it to collect data from teachers in an online professional development course that I taught last spring, many of the teachers weren’t able to view the form. I first sent it within an e-mail message, but I think that the teachers’ e-mail settings must have blocked the functionality. I then tried just sending a link to the form, and some teachers still had trouble. Have you ever experienced anything like that? Do you see anything that I might be doing wrong?
October 14th, 2008 at 6:13 am
I was in a curriculum meeting, going through my google reader when I came across this post. I’ve used google docs before but not the forms feature. The discussion in the meeting was about a survey for staff to complete about assessment so it was very timely. Before the end of the meeting I had roughed it out and emailed it to the chair of the meeting – she was very impressed. Thanks for the reminder which I read at exactly the right time.
October 14th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Hi Rani, glad this post was useful.
I have tried SurveyMonkey and a number of other similar programs in the past and have found many of them to be quite good.
The idea of this post was to show how easily you can add interactivity with a free, easy to use product. The fact that it is one of the Google offerings means that it may more readily adopted by some people (given the well known brand, sense of trust etc.)
October 14th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Hi Melanie, thanks for letting us know of your experience with Google Docs Forms.
I have not had any experience of people not being able to access the forms however I can see that peoples email setting may impact their ability to see the forms.
What I don’t understand is why people wouldn’t be able to access the form via a link?
Maybe you could try embedding the form in a Google Pages (as mentioned by munromobile above) – just keep this in mind.
Hopefully another reader can help us understand why some people couldn’t access the form via a direct link?
With problems such as these I have found that often the easiest way to sort out the issue is to use a screen sharing tool such as GoToAssist, Yuuguu or Mikogo to help them troubleshoot the issue.
October 14th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Hi Heather, that is wonderful!
Amazing how this post could be so timely!
October 15th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Great point made by @daibarnes on Twitter regarding Google Docs
No registration but multiple entries possible which undermines integrity of data. Name as required field tho.